Birds and the Bees (Baby Shower #2)

I know what you are thinking "two posts two days in a row?"

Yes it's true. Girlfriend is sleeping so I am getting some blogging time in!!

On Saturday we had our second baby shower and the little one got to attend again! How fun is it actually have the guest of honor present at the shower?? Probably the best!  Sure it was a little difficult getting by on just a little bit until we had the shower but it was so fun at the same time!!

My brother-in-law's fiancé ( I get to call her that now since they just got engaged last week!!!!) asked me about a month ago if she could host a baby shower for us. I said OF COURSE!! I mean really who denies a party?!?!  She asked if I had any ideas in mind and I said I really like the idea of a Birds and the Bees theme. And run with it she did!!

The invites were adorable. 

Love them!!

Then just about everything was bee themed. The colors were grey and yellow ( my current color combo obsession) and then just adorable little details all over!!

The cake was delish. The table was perfect and I even got to have those paper straws that are everywhere!!

I love the glass snack plates. I inherited a bunch of them from my mom and I was so happy to get to use them. 

Cute little bees welcomed everyone in since the sign they ordered didn't arrive in time. ( it actually arrived that afternoon) 

Adorable so glad I get to keep it!!

We had really fun games and activities. The guests were given a little pink clothespin when they came in and weren't supposed to say "baby" if they did they had to give it up. Whoever had the most at the end got a prize/gift. My sister won!!

Also the guests got to make headbands for E and I judged them and picked the two I liked beat (actually Thomas was there too and he picked one and I picked one) and the winners got a prize/gift. 

One if the most exciting and best parts was that my daddy got to come and partake in the festivities. As well as meet his first grandchild for the first time (he was on a European cruise when she was born). 

And he got to hold her

He wanted to match and wore the headband he made for her!!!

We got lots of great gifts for the little girl. 

We had a lot of fun opening them and I was so happy that the hubs was there to enjoy and help out. 

Girlfriend and I had a fabulous time and she looked so cute dressed up for the theme as a little polka dot honey bee!!!

We just had the best time and I am so thankful for everyone that came and have prayed and given us support through this whole adoption journey. We are so happy that she is here and are so grateful for her birth mom giving us this opportunity. 

♥ Ashley

Baby Shower #1

I am so blessed to work for such a great organization. I am so thankful for all their support and how they all have been so accepting and kind to me over the past school year.

My co-workers were so elated when they heard about the soon to be arrival of our little one and they all prayed constantly for a smooth process and that she would be able to come home with us. 

When we got back they held a little baby shower for us. We had a fabulous time and they did a wonderful job decorating the staff room and helping the hubs and I feel so special. 

We got the cutest diaper cake and the cupcakes were delish!!  My staff were all so generous and we are so blessed!

We obviously did a horrible job taking pictures but it was so fun having our little E there with us!!

♥ Ashley

{weekly update} week two

How has another week gone by already!!  I am so amazed by how much has changed in just a week with this little girl!!  She is becoming more active everyday and we are starting to see more of a schedule with her!!

Weight: not sure exactly but I would say she is still in the low 7 pound range.  Maybe 7.3 ounces?

Sleep: girlfriend is more awake this week just looking around.  I would say she is up for close to 6 hours.  Last night we tried her in the bassinet and I think it might have been a little too early for her - she loves to cuddle! So she was pretty fussy.

Clothes: still rocking the newborn onesies, though she does fit into some preemie clothes!

Visitors: she got to meet my soon to be sister in law (they just got engaged two days ago!!).  Then we have ventured out to my in-laws house as well as to visit with Thomas' brother, wife and kids at their home. 

Diet: still chowing down on 2 ounces of Similac formula at each feeding.  We have about 8 a day every 3 to 4 hours.

Crying: usually just when she is hungry. She has her moments where she will make a crying face for 0.2 seconds and then calm right down.  However, last night she was pretty fussy for about an hour or so.

Baby Gear Love: still love the glass Dr. Brown's bottles (hoping to get more soon). I also got an app on my phone to record feedings, diaper changes, and napping/sleeping.

Milestones: going out for Sushi and shopping at Costco.  We also had our first baby shower at my school so she came for a visit and got to meet my co-workers! And her umbilical cord came off yesterday!!

♥ Ashley

Weekend Recap

We are just having a splendid time here on the farm getting used to life with a little one!!

We took turns on baby duty and farm duty. I spent most of my day on Saturday weeding our front flower bed. While my dear hubby watered and mowed and worked with the animals. 

I made quite a headway on it and would say that I have about 3/4 of it done! We just need to invest in about 40 to 50 bags of compost/mulch!!

 I love how it is coming along and it is really starting to fill in. I also am so excited to announce that my peonies are finally blooming this year!!

I also thought I would share our vegetable garden with you all. We have been working on it and after a couple years in this location we are making some changes. We are removing the cobble stone edging on it (that I didn't realize would be such a pain) and hope to replace it with some wooden beams.  We made the decision to divide up this huge patch of land into 6 plots and used some extra bricks we had laying around from the previous owners. 

We have planted in the NW corner with tomatoes and cucumbers. The center North has beans and zucchini. In the NE corner we have peas and kale. The Se corner has peas and lettuce. We fenced off the center South section to keep out the bunnies and we planted Swiss chard, artichoke, cabbage and broccoli in there. We currently don't have any thing planted in the SW corner, we are thinking pumpkins and bell peppers. 

We already have a tomato coming in and some pea flowers are popping!!

I also went to the local farmers market and got some gorgeous peonies for our dining room table! I added in some chive flowers to fill in a bit. 

And then of course we spent some time with this beautiful face. 

How was your weekend??

♥ Ashley

{weekly update} week one

I can't believe that it's already been one week since our little girl was born!! Granted it was a busy week waiting for papers and the "go ahead" toast the 6 hour trek home. We are so blessed and are having the best time learning our new roles as parents.

our first picture of her 

Weight: at birth 7 pounds. At discharge 6 pounds 10 ounces ( only a 5% decrease). And at her one week check up today 7 pounds 1 ounce!!

Sleep: lots. Close to 19 or 20 hours for this growing babe. 

Clothes: newborn, well only from certain brands as they range in size. But she doesn't fit into the footed ones they are way TOO big and her feet come out an up into her stomach so she has these dangling legs, haha. 

Visitors: from her birth side; mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brother, aunt, and cousin. From our family; my aunt and uncle and cousins that live in Spokane. Once we got home we were welcomed by the hubs family; mom, dad, brothers (uncles), sister in law ( aunt), cousins, and  grandma (great grandma). Also she had met my sister and her husband.

Diet: similac formula.   Anywhere from 1 1/4 ounces to 2 ounces a feeding every 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  

Crying: when she is hungry. But it's really non existent at this point. Hopefully that is a trend that continues. 

Baby Gear Love: dr. browns glass bottles, swaddle blankets/baby blankets, and her carseat. 

Milestones: leaving the hospital for my aunts house 2 days after birth. First shopping trip to Target.  Getting the call on Friday that we are good to go home and finally arriving home on Saturday 4 days after birth!!  Riding in a car for 6 hours. And meeting all her pets. 

We absolutely love this little girl and are so proud that we were chosen to be her parents!!

♥ Ashley

She IS Here!!!

OMG OMG OMG she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen (and I would be totally honest if she wasn't). I love her so much already. We jus hope that everything goes smoothly and we get to keep her.

Our daughter was born on Tuesday May 21st at 1:03 in the afternoon via c-section. She was 7 lbs and 19" long and a total bundle of joy. Well actually she was crying like crazy. 

Lets get to the story. We arrived in Spokane on Monday evening and went to stay at my aunts home. We did not need to be at the hospital until 10:15am so we had some time to spare when we got up. We had our coffee. I ate a banana and then we got our act together and left the house with plenty of time to get to the hospital on time. We decided that we were hungry so we stopped at McDonald's on the way (don't judge). The drive through was super busy so we thought it would be faster to go inside. I think that it was the cashiers first day and she had the hardest time with our order "2 sausage muffins and 1 hashbrown" finally about 20 minutes later we got our order and were back on the road. I started to get excited so we turned up macklemore and had a little dance party. 

We arrived at the hospital with like 1 minute to spare.  We still got there before the birth parents so that was good. We waited in the waiting room and then I got to go back to the prep/recovery room and visit with the birth mom for a little while. Only one person is allowed back there so I went back to the waiting room so the birth dad could go wait with her. 

While we were waiting the nurse came and told us that we were going to get our own room that the baby would be assigned to!!!! Yes I didn't have to sleep on a couch!  So we went back and got settled in. 

Then all of a sudden we heard her.  Our baby she was crying and being carried down the hall for the OR. I am sure I was super annoying to the nurse because most moms are recovering in the bed when they do all the measurements and footprints and what not but I kept hitting her elbows taking pictures. I apologized but continued to get in the way!!

Finally I got to hold her. It was an experience that no words can express. How lucky we are to be blessed by God for this beautiful baby. We were chosen for her to raise her and to have her be our daughter. Our dream had finally been realized and the whole purpose for this blog arrived. 

Thanks be to God for our family!!

She has the chubbiest little cheeks and I love her. 

♥ Ashley

Nursery so far...

We are getting closer to bringing our baby home!!

So some work has been done on the nursery. I wanted to share a little of what she will be coming home to. A full nursery  tour will come after we are home and have gotten a few more things. 

I got inspired from Pinterest and wanted to add some poms above the crib. 

This is what her view will look like. I think I still need to add a few more green ones. And maybe another silver one?

The changing table/dresser was in my childhood room. I just updated it with some grey paint. I still want to change out the knobs, but this works for now. 

♥ Ashley

She is almost here!!

I am overwhelmed with excitement and anxiety at the thought of meeting and bringing home our precious little girl. I have had a migraine for 8 days straight. We leave on Monday after work to go to the hospital. Did I tell you we get to be there when she is born??? I mean we don't get to be in the OR but at the hospital. (When we were at our orientation seminar one of the adoptive couples were from out of town and were fortunate enough to get their own hospital room!!  I sure hope that happens to us! Prayers and fingers crossed)

Then I am not really sure what the plan is. If we don't get our own room I will probably sleep at the hospital if the birth mom wants me too. And I don't know when we will get to take the baby home. Hopefully we will get to bring her home by Memorial Day. 

We also have to pick out a name. I think we are going to try and see if we can't all agree on a name. Otherwise we might just let the birth mom pick out the middle name - as long as it flows together nicely!

I sure hope my migraine goes away so that I can enjoy meeting our little girl!!

♥ Ashley

It's Spring!

The weather has been gorgeous here in the PNW. We have been working hard on getting our vegetable garden started.

Lots of improvements have been happening here and we are on a self imposed deadline to get our "to do" list completed since we have been chosen for a baby that we will be picking up in the near future!!

We reorganized our vegetable garden and split it up into sections using some bricks we had laying around our property (courtesy of the previous owners). Tilled the garden and added some more dirt. All of our cool crop vegetables have been planted: peas, lettuce, kale, broccoli, cabbage, and Swiss chard. We are also trying out an artichoke again.

I have also had the opportunity to have our own homegrown flowers cut and brought into the house to enjoy. Flowers such as tulips, daffodils, lilac, and anemones.

I love spring and how the world is coming out of hiding and all the trees are coming back to life and the beautiful flowers are showing up.

Our flower garden is doing wonderfully. Although the weeding was atrocious this year. I filled up at least 2 yard waste containers and still have more to do. But most of my peony plants actually have buds in them that are growing everyday and I am pretty sure that they will finally bloom this year. (4 years later).

How is your garden? What are you growing this year?

♥ Ashley

Whirlwind Weekend

We got to have another visit with our potential birth parents this weekend. We left on Thursday after work to head over to Spokane. I even got to go to a doctor's appointment and hear her heart beat!!! I met with the doctor who will deliver the baby and they were very happy for Thomas and myself. After the appointment we went back to the birth dad's home and got to meet more of the family.

After our visit we went out to lunch with the birth parents to Chili's (would you believe that it was my first time ever at a Chili's?). The food was delish an we had a great time getting to know each other better. 

I am so excited but super nervous at the same time for all of this to happen. I can't wait to see and meet our little girl. We are less than one month away!!

♥ Ashley

Help Thomas and Ashley Adopt!!

I mentioned on here a few weeks ago that we have set up a Facebook Page about our Adoption.  You can see it here: Help Thomas and Ashley Adopt . Like it, join it have your friends like it.  If there is one thing that we have learned throughout our adoption journey is that there is a cost to it.  And these costs differ on the type of adoption you are doing, the agency you go through, and all the legal fees and travel fees that are a part of the overall cost.

We LOVE our agency and I would love to refer you if you feel called to adopt.  They are AMAZING!  All in all our adoption will cost us around $25,000.  That is a lot of money.  We have a good amount saved up and our families are willing to help us out a bit as well.  All the rest that we are unable to come up with will have to go on credit cards and if we are lucky we will be able to get a personal loan to help out with the costs - that will hopefully have a lower interest rate than our credit cards.  We know that having children is an expense and the adoption costs are just the TIP of the Iceberg.  If you feel inclined or called to help us out with these costs we would be forever grateful for your generous donation and assistance to helping us start our family through adoption.  

I know that the blogging community is a great place and I feel so blessed to be a part of it.  I love all 45 of my beautiful followers and even those who are not "official" followers I love you too!!  Thank you for all of your support and kind comments you have thrown my way!! I appreciate each and everyone of you!!

If you feel called to donate just leave a comment in the comment section with your email and I will send you our PayPal information.

I am also thinking about doing a "clean out my closet" sale and all proceeds from that will also go to help cover our adoption costs.

Thank you all!!

♥ Ashley

PS. Adoption updates are coming on their way!!!

Getting it Together

I have noticed that my blogging posts have diminished over the year.  It has nothing to do with blogging - let me tell you that!  I love to blog and it fills a need in my life.  So then, why have I been absent?  All I can come up with for you is an Excuse.  I don't like excuses - but here I am giving you one.  Since I lost my job last year I had to turn in my beloved MacBook since it belonged to the district.  Which means that I am computer-less at home.  Well that is not completely true.  I do have a Dell laptop that is from 2005.  It is SUPER slow and annoys the heck outta me.  My old cell phone was a Rumor from 2008 the green one...I loved it.  But it was time for an upgrade (back in October) and since the iPhone 5 was coming out they had great deals - free upgrade to an iPhone 4 or $50 or an iPhone 4S.  So I forked over the $50 and got the 4S.  I adore it but, I am having a hard time getting my photos and navigating blogger on it.  Its a work in progress.  So that my friends is why I haven't been posting very much.

I am still here.  And I did get a new job and I love it!! And I hope to soon get back into the blogging....anyone know how to clear out my Dell to help it run faster?????

♥ Ashley

Facebook Page

I started a facebook page about our adoption.  Please feel free to check it out, read it, like it, and/or donate!!

Help Thomas and Ashley Adopt




Thanks all!!

♥ Ashley

[recipe] Lemon Blueberry Cake

I am the "dessert" girl in the hubster's family.  I love it, because I like to bake and then share it so we don't end up eating all of it.

Last year I made an Applesauce Cake from my childhood. 

This year I wanted to try something new and more "Eastery-colored"

Also I thought it would be fun to try a Pinterest recipe.

I found the Lemon Blueberry Marble Cake and thought I would give it a go!

 Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, room temperature

2 C granulated sugar

2 tsp grated lemon zest (I zested a whole lemon)

1 1/2 tsp lemon extract (I used the juice of a whole lemon)

7 egg whites

3 C cake flour (I used AP Flour)

4 tsp baking power

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 C whole milk

1 13 oz. jar blueberry jam with lemon juice

 1 pint of fresh blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour 3 eight inch cake pans and line bottom with wax paper.

Cream together butter, sugar, lemon zest and lemon extract until fluffy.

Add in the egg whites gradually, a couple at a time. Beat well between additions and scrape down sides of bowl.

Mix together in another bowl the flour, baking powder and salt.

Alternating flour and milk, beat the dry ingredients and milk into the butter mixture. Beat on medium speed for one minute to eliminate any lumps.

Set aside 1 cup of batter in a small bowl.

With the remaining batter I added some blue food coloring to give it that Easter look, then divide the remaining blue batter between the three cake pans, smooth top with spatula.

Add 2 1/2 Tbsp jam to the reserved batter and mix well. I probably used more.

Drizzle by the teaspoon over the batter in the pans.

Use a wooden skewer to swirl the blueberry mixture into the lemon batter without mixing it in. Then divide the fresh blueberries among all three cake pans and sprinkle them on top!

Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and cake pulls away from the sides.s

Let cool for 10-15 minutes and remove from pan onto a wire rack. Cool completely.

For the frosting I had some left over Honey Frosting that I had chilling in the freezer so I thawed it, added quite a bit more powdered sugar and the juice of one lemon.

To build the cake, put down the first layer and then spread 1/2 of the remaining blueberry jam over the top, place the next layer of cake and spread the rest of the jam and top with the final layer of cake.  Let sit or cool in the fridge for about 30min then coat with your frosting. Top with some more lemon zest!  YUM

I loved this cake and it was a fun surprise for the little nieces when we cut into it as they were not expecting to see a BLUE cake!!

If I were to make this again I would add MORE lemon or try the extract like the recipe says.  It was a little bit of a dry dense cake - probably because I used AP flour instead of cake flour.

It was great though don't get me wrong - we all loved it!

linked to Tasty Tuesdays

♥ Ashley